How do you all agitate your surface in your nano tanks?

[ramen lover]

Hi All-

I have a GLA 6 g rimless tank. I am working on re-scaping it. I have glass lily pipes and an eheim 2213 filter. I noticed there is some film on the surface of my water and the surface of the water doesn't seem to be flowing/moving much.

How do all of you deal with surface scum/agitation for your nano tanks? Yes, I could put a surface skimmer.. but that would take away the 'cleanness' of the tank. the only equipment that is visible in the tank are the glass lily pipes. i didn't want to use the ugly green eheim intake/spray bar. not sure if i should get an air pump and add an air stone to add oxyen/surface agitation to the tank.

[somewhatshocked]

If you're using lily pipes, raise them up a bit to create some surface movement.

[Wwh2694]

Lily ring pipe

[ramen lover]

Originally Posted by somewhatshocked

If you're using lily pipes, raise them up a bit to create some surface movement.

i guess i could just move them up higher.. i would probably have to lower my water level though

Originally Posted by Wwh2694

Lily ring pipe

what is a lily ring pipe? i've never heard of this

[somewhatshocked]

You don't have to permanently raise them. Some just raise them once or twice a week when there's an issue.

[@marko@]

i just aim the output of my eheim upwards a bit. and if i notice any surface film i paper towel it away.

[freph]

Originally Posted by @marko@

i just aim the output of my eheim upwards a bit. and if i notice any surface film i paper towel it away.

Paper towel trick works wonders. Personally, I run an airstone for a few hours at night before I go to bed since I can't sleep with an air pump and bubble stone going. It lats me until the next night and even then there's very little surface scum on my Mini M with my filter (Eheim 2211) outflow dialed to roughly half strength. However, there is still decent surface movement on mine which makes me wonder if your lily pipes are diffusing too much of the flow. Maybe try the stock Eheim outflow or one of ADA's/whoever's glass straight flow pipes (Mini P-2 is the 13mm version of what I use. Also, you might have too much organic crud/dissolved proteins (overfeeding) in your tank. Try stepping up water changes (lightly vacuum plants/low-flow spots/accumulated detrius/dead plant matter/etc. when you do this) as well to see if that gets rid of the problem.

Unfortunately for folks like me who keep their tanks in their bedrooms, raising lily pipes at night really isn't an option. Too much noise to sleep. So, even with a nice product you're running into an issue of too much noise for an acceptable level of sound in a room.

[Kehy]

My issue is I love doing pico tanks. How in the heck are you supposed to get surface movement in a 1/2 gallon bowl or smaller without bowling anything around, and without airstones? (those really annoy me) The paper towel trick works sometimes, but it's hit or miss for me.

[idleivey]

I don't agitate the surface of any of my nano/pico tanks and I don't have a problem with film or anything.

[sayurasem]

Lily pipes are designed to make a little swirl on the water surface to get rid of surface scum.

[Rainer]

Originally Posted by sayurasem

Lily pipes are designed to make a little swirl on the water surface to get rid of surface scum.

Floaters, IME, defeat this. Probably the paper towel trick too.

[freph]

Originally Posted by sayurasem

Lily pipes are designed to make a little swirl on the water surface to get rid of surface scum.

Unless you have a massive amount of outlet pressure when using the recommended pipes, you're not going to see much of a swirl. I get a decent surface ripple in my 20L with a 2215 with 13mm lily pipes. The only noticeable one I've seen was in a well-known 60-F thread on here in which there was an Eheim 2215 attached to 9mm pipes. Normally you would would use 13mm pipes for that filter outflow. Concentrated flow = whirlpool.

[ramen lover]

i raised my lily pipes up a little bit for a day and it sucked away everything. thanks all!